Editor

 
During the IFFR 2010 Awards Ceremony for Short Films on Monday, February 1, 2010 in festival location Rotterdamse Schouwburg, the winning short films of the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced.
The three Tiger Awards for Short Film were granted to Wei Wen (Condolences) by Ying Liang (China), Atlantiques by Mati Diop (France/Senegal) and Wednesday Morning Two A.M. by Lewis Klahr (USA).
The Rotterdam Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2010 was given to Out of Love by Brigitte Staermose (Denmark).
On Sunday January 31, the NPS New Arrivals Award was given to online short film Dag buurvrouw (Goodbye Neighbour) by Robert Jan Vos (Netherlands).
 
Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films
To raise the profile of short films as a highly influential form of art but also as the realm in which cinema has been both democratized and popularized by the online and digital developments,  the International Film Festival Rotterdam founded its Competition for Short Films in 2005. This edition, thirty-one films of up to sixty minutes in length were presented to the international jury consisting of Jeremy Rigsby (programmer of Media City Festival in Windsor, Canada), Shai Heredia (director of Filter India Festival, Mumbai, India) and Albert Wulffers (filmmaker, writer, visual artist and teacher, The Netherlands).
 
The three winners and the jury statements are:
 
Wei Wen (Condolences) by Ying Liang (China)
"A fixed camera position, reminiscent of the early days of cinematography, gives the viewer the opportunity of objectively gazing into a theatre which develops around a grandmother who lost two of her relatives in a traffic accident. Her personal tragedy is turned into a precisely choreographed analysis of a social structure in which all participants are out for their own benefit. Only after the circus is over does our heroin move into the spotlight."
 
Atlantiques by Mati Diop (France/Senegal)
 "The vastness and danger of the sea is both an enduring metaphor and an often brutal reality. Atlantiques is perfectly poised at this intersection of myth and fact, luring us into its slowly and inexorably turning cycles of hope and friendship, and fear and death. The lighthouse as a symbol for safe arrival is at the same time by its overwhelming beauty something that remains forever out of reach."
 
Wednesday Morning Two A.M. by Lewis Klahr (USA)
 "An intimate and poetic study of the darkness of love and the beauty of texture. Wednesday Morning Two A.M. combines figurative realism with pure abstraction to remind us of the value of the small and the handmade."
 
Rotterdam Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2010
The winner of the Rotterdam Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards is automatically nominated for the European Film Awards. September 2010, the 2000 members of the European Film Academy will choose the winner. The Rotterdam Short Film Nomination is:
 
Out of Love by Brigitte Staermose (Denmark)
"A divisive film about a divisive situation, Out Of Love engages a problematic of representation and documentation in a manner both sufficiently sophisticated and sufficiently provocative that we must respect its ability to command our attention and evoke strong opinions. In the friction between the harshness of its stories and the beauty of its images we find an unease and ambiguity that does not permit complacency from its spectators."
 
NPS New Arrivals Award
New Arrivals is an online platform for short films, organized by the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and Dutch broadcasting company NPS. Filmmakers are invited to send in their short film. An editorial committee selects five films every month, a jury selects the monthly winner. During IFFR 2010 all seven monthly winners are shown and an international jury chooses the winning film. The winner receives € 1000.
The international jury consisted of Swiss filmmaker Irene Ledermann (her film Schonzeit is selected for IFFR 2010), Sandra Beerends (NPS Drama) and Dutch filmmaker Michiel van Bakel (his film Sensible is selected for IFFR 2010). The awarded film is:
 
Dag buurvrouw (Goodbye Neighbour) by Robert Jan Vos (The Netherlands)
"This film is playing with the perspective of the viewer. The framing of the camera is slightly moving but the view is captured in only one room. These little changes give us a sense of endless time passing. We see fragments of the lives of people outside, we hear tiny bits of dialogue but there is no interaction between them, apart from irritation about a double parked bike. Who are these people and what is their relation to the mysterious viewer? We feel that this film makes in his own simplicity a subtle statement about our World."
 
The NPS New Arrival Award winner can be seen online at http://www.newarrivals.nps.nl/. New Arrivals invites everyone interested to send in their short online film for the next edition.